Maningning Miclat's 'Laughter'

He left me
when he could
no longer stand the laughter

that I gave him
while he begged me not
to keep memories

alive in poems
to hurt myself
and make those
who read

sad. I laughed
when he shared
his life with me
while holding him

to make it easier
and maybe
less painful
to live on.

Laugh! I told
him, but
could not get
his attention.

Laugh! I asked
him, but
he left in
anger.

And left
before he understood
the courage
that held my laughter.

An analysis of mine for her poem is that, though she had said the word laughter in the poem for so many times, it does not really mean that she's happy. It is an irony of what she truly feels. Her feeling of being so alone after being left by her lover. The feeling of sadness that no matter how she tried to be strong, she was left, left misunderstood. She had held on the memories of her past through the poems she writes, she relives the memories by her writings, and that was one of the reasons that she was left. The false laughter that she shows when they are together, laughter that is trying to hide something from him, and that, he could no longer stand.




Maningning Miclat

Tanaga

Rose

Rose, not in full bloom, so sly
entices a butterfly
its dew gives life, its fragrance
draws both together: romance.

A simple explanation of the tanaga is that, as a common representation of a female persona, the rose depicts how a woman, not very open to show how she really is, can be sly, deceiving, and yet, a man, a butterfly, can easily get allured by its fragrance, the dew that gives nourishment. And how both are drawn by romance, because of the rose's beauty and fragrance.

Estrella Alfon's Servant Girl - My Reaction

Estrella Alfon's The Servant Girl is a good story. It touches the heart of its readers. It depicts the life of a common servant who experiences domestic violence from their employers. showing us the common hardships they encounter in their everyday stay.

Rosa is a regular housemaid doing her daily routine of house hold chores. She was forced to wash the clothes inside the house in order for her mistress to save money from paying for their clothes to be washed. Rosa was envious to the other women who can freely chat with each other while she was just kept inside.

Upon meeting the cochero because of the accident she met that day while going through the washed clothes, she felt that she was falling for her cochero everyday. She had even named him as Angel because she did not know his name. But the truth is that, she was just feeling infatuated towards the cochero due to the gratitude she had after him doing her a favor.

In the middle of the story, she felt the courage to fight back to her mistress but she did not do it. Eventually, she came up with a plan of moving out of the house without her mistress knowing. And loitering in the streets, she met a guy who made her angry of its remarks. After throwing a stone towards the man, she realizes that the man was her Angel who's real name is Pedro.

This made her realize that she had not fallen for Pedro but just merely childish infatuation. In the end she had came back to her mistress' house and swallowed the words she once said.

It tells us that not all people are who they really are, sometimes we see them as how we want to depict them. This story has a lot of morals and a very hearty story, showing us the struggles, the false loves and false hopes of a naturally beautiful servant who had once dreamed of becoming rich and getting out of that house and how she came back to where she had started.